Of Assassins and Kings
by Robyn Maddison
Summary: Changed forever by her experience Underground, Sarah now lives in the shadows, willingly doing the bidding of a cruel King. An encounter with Jareth will force her to come to terms with what and who she is.


**Disclaimer**: I own none of the characters found herein.  
**Rating**: PG-13  
**Summary**: Changed forever by her experience Underground, Sarah now lives in the shadows, willingly doing thebidding of a cruel King. An encounter with Jareth will force her to come to terms with what and who she is.

**Of Assassins and Kings**

The smooth black material slipped over her face easily. It was a comfortable mask, well worn and well used. Dark clothing, tightly wrapped around her lithe figure, gave her flexibility and the ability to merge with the shadows and soft-soled boots shod her feet.

One slim hand slid down her costume, outlandish looking in the modern setting of the brightly lit living room with it's pink cushions and long drapes, and came to rest on the long handle of her knife.

She clasped the worn handle loosely with one palm and crouched as her other hand found its way to a matching handle, the knives came in a pair.

Her outfit, though suitable for a Halloween party if she were to go as a thief, was authentic and genuine. She'd been called tonight, her unique services were needed in the Underground, where traditions that had long ago been employed in the modern world were still thriving. So she'd been beckoned, and when she was beckoned, she went.

Her distinctive ability to get to and from the Underground with little or no detection by the governing Fae had put her into a very odd position. A very _useful_ position.

She could slip past magical wards, she could carry iron, she needed the magic of the Underground like a man in a desert craves water. Her loyalty was bought with the promise of magic. For the ability to stay there for moments of her life, she willingly placed herself at the beck and call of the High King of the Underground. She willingly did as she was asked.

She was Sarah Williams, one time champion of an unsolvable Labyrinth, one of the last humans on Earth Touched by the Faery, and assassin and spy extraordinaire.

And tonight her skills would be put to use one more time. She slipped softly into the Underground, fading from earth with no fanfare. There was only a whisper of air sliding into unoccupied space where once a woman had stood.

She bowed her simply in understanding. "Of course m'lord." She kept her features carefully neutral as her mind raced.

The High King regarded the slender woman kneeling before him, keen eyes taking in the slight twitching of her fingers around the hilt of one her knives as she learned of her destination and mission objective.

He allowed the deadly iron weapon to be carried in his presence; he proved his trust in her and further assured her loyalty. Something he was very, very keen to gain and keep at all costs. Sarah Williams remained in the dark about her importance of her presence and abilities, and he wanted to keep it that way until she was firmly under his control, swayed by the magic he was feeding her.

I was magic she needed, no doubt about that. She's been allowed back into the human realm, but once having dwelt in the Underground a person's soul always craved that elusive touch of magic in their lives. And for she it was more so than most – the Underground had touched her more deeply than most.

The High King was willing to feed her that magic that she needed and craved. For it was magic laced with a certain lust for more, always more. Magic that convinced her only he could provide her with it – that he was her only answer to her quest for magic.

This next task he'd asked her to complete would test her loyalties; he was confident that she would be up to the challenge.

"Very well." He waved a hand at her idly form his darkened alcove, "Begone, Sarah Williams, to the Castle beyond the Goblin City, and bring me the information I seek. This _coup_ must not be allowed to succeed."

She inclined her head once more, and then with a slight rustle of fabric she moved silently from the room. Her stomach quivered at the thought of sneaking into a place she hadn't been to for 12 years, her nerves were strung as taut as a bridge cable.

On the other hand, she'd been in need of a good challenge lately, and the Goblin King was sure to provide one, whether he knew of her or not.

Hoggle stopped what he was doing and sniffed the air curiously, his thick brows lowered ominously. Something familiar tickled the back of his mind. A once loved presence… someone he knew… He frowned.

The aged dwarf lowered his can of fairy-pesticide and turned, just in time to see a quick black shape dart into view, green eyes that were oh-so-familiar blankly gazing at him from deep within a dark mask.

"Sarah?" He croaked out, stunned by the appearance of a woman when he'd last seen a child. Shocked by the transition from girlish ruffles and makeup to sinister black, malevolent intentions written in her stance.

She breathed deep. "I'm sorry Hoggle, but I know where your loyalty lies, and at this time, you're a liability." He never saw the quick-fire feathered dart leave her hand. All he saw were her vaguely apologetic eyes as he faded into unconsciousness.

Sarah crouched by the prone figure of the old dwarf and sighed once, before reigning her emotions in fiercely. No! There was no time for sentimental rubbish when she had a task to do. She scanned the area for witnesses and spied none, the walls remained solid and silent. After a moment more of stillness she was slightly satisfied and continued on her way through the ever-changing Labyrinth.

She had more tricks up her sleeve this time round, and the added bonus that she wasn't expected. Nor was she trying to retrieve a child this time. The Labyrinth recognized her, she could feel it, and it was puzzled by her intent. She wanted to make it through, yes, but she had no burning desire to reach a child or to save someone or to drastically oppose the Goblin King. In its confusion The Labyrinth let her pass mostly unmolested.

In her haste away from Hoggle and the memories his creased face stirred up, she missed the soft fluttering of wings as several fairies flew as fast as they could away from the walls of the Labyrinth. Up and up and above the great maze, hastily to the Castle and their king to warn him of the woman in black who was stealing through his Labyrinth like a native, dressed for thievery and killing.

Jareth watched, a frown marring his perfect features, as the woman continued to slink through Labyrinth. He'd been fascinated by the way she found the shortcuts and avoided the traps.

Still, there was something slightly different about her. Something not quite right about the way she felt to the Labyrinth. It almost welcomed her, knew her. Her mask couldn't hide the braid of dark hair, but it disguised her features well. He couldn't place her, though he had the odd feeling her should be able to, quite able to.

When he spied the Iron blade slung at her side he grinned despite himself. The High King was getting wilier as he got on in years. He'd found a half-Fae, Jareth presumed, one who could handle Iron with less discomfort, less _fatal, _results.

"Oh you clever man you." He murmured to himself as he grinned and flicked the crystal into nothingness. "If only you'd stop underestimating the Labyrinth, you might actually stand a chance against me."

He stood fluidly, his armour and cape swirled dramatically. "The eternal games we play. They never get boring when there are humans to play with." There was a flash of pointed teeth, a glint of mismatched eyes, before Jareth the Goblin King disappeared to go pay a visit to the trespasser and spy.

Sarah paused on the edges of the Junkyard. She could see vapour from the Bog of Eternal Stench rising in the distance, the sound of junk people rummaging tirelessly through the piles of waste and scraps.

She sniffed and frowned. The scent of magic lingered in the air and the noises grew quiet. She twirled and put her back to the back of a pile of old things far past their use. She panted a bit and kept an alert eye. She didn't fail to miss the crystal as it rolled passed her feet in an erratic pattern. Her eyes drawn momentarily down, she reached for the hilt of her knife a little to late.

"Well, well. I wouldn't do that if I were you." The smooth voice carried the faintest trace of amusement in it. As if it was funny that she thought she could harm him with that silly little blade. She scowled. The arrogance! She'd almost forgotten. He had a crystal aimed at her. She dropped her hand away from the knives and looked down to hide her angry gaze.

"So then, little spy, aren't you even going to look at me?" steps crunched closer on the pebbled ground.

Sarah raised green eyes to his and in a flash the junkyard disappeared and the walls of an oubliette surrounded them. He was closer. A wave of his hand and a goblin waiting in a dark corner grabbed for the knives. She made a move to fight the creature, but stopped short.

"I wouldn't try that if I were you, not unless you have a very painful death wish?" She stopped and looked warily at the crystal ball he was ready to throw at her. Sighing she raised her hands in a position of surrender and relaxed from her fighting stance.

The goblin darted in and quickly grabbed the iron knives and scurried out a door that disappeared as soon as it closed behind him.

She stared at the Goblin King silently. He narrowed his eyes at her and began to circle her, his cornered prey.

"I would ask who sent you," He hissed into one ear and she shivered involuntarily at his warm breath on her skin, "But I know full well."

"And because I know full well, I know also what your purpose here was." He walked around her once more. She stiffened as he stopped behind her, and his hands were tight on her body, sliding under over her breasts down her ribs, down and around. "And I know what you'll have hidden on you somewhere."

She was frozen as he searched her. Her breath was coming short as gloved hands travelled her torso. Even through layers of fabric the sheer magic of his being soaked into her skin and made her tingle all the way down to her toes.

He went lower and hands slid over her stomach, feeling muscles taut with nervousness. His hand paused at a slight bulge in the fabric, and Sarah tried to move, only to find that now she couldn't.

Quick hands pulled out the small vial of poison from its pocket and he moved away. "Can't have you offing yourself before I get any information out of you, now can I?" He smiled dangerously.

Sarah watched her last choice disappear into his hands despairingly, and silently struggled with the magic that bound her frozen. She could feel it weakening, unable to withstand her will – it was after all, as strong as his.

He watched her and felt a little shock spread through him. She was fighting it! She was fighting his magic over her! "Well, well." He tapped his chin with a gloved finger thoughtfully, "Aren't you a skilled little spy. Trained in some magic, loyal enough to carry just enough poison to swallow in case of capture, and a woman no less! The High King's choice in slaves has improved."

Sarah's nostrils flared at the jibe. "I'm not a slave. Not to him, not to anyone." She spat the words out defiantly, cheeks flushing suddenly in anger.

He grinned ferally and drawled in a mocking tone, "Aren't you?"

She simmered and refused to bite.

The goblin continued. "I think you very much are a slave. He snaps his fingers and you run. He says, kill so and so! And you scurry off to do it. Oh yes, now that I've caught you, I know very well who you are. His latest pet assassin, eager to get a treat and do as master bids." He smiled again, a little wryly. "If that's not slavery what is?"

Sarah blinked. "I freely chose the life I live, that's the most freedom anyone can ever hope for. We're all slaves to something." She levelled a look at him. "Even you."

Jareth scowled and a deep frown crossed his face. Without warning his hand reached up and stripped off her mask.

Sarah blinked and struggled to reign in her emotions.

The mask dropped limply from gloved fingers. "You…" shock ran through his eyes, fear coursed over his pale features.

Sarah stood there waiting for the outburst she was sure would come. Without warning she was alone in the now dark oubliette, the guttering candle extinguished by his hasty exit and subsequent rush of air that cycloned in the dank hole.

It was three days until he visited again. She was sitting on the damp ground meditating when light flared. She shielded her eyes from the sudden onslaught, and waited for them to slowly adjust.

When she opened them again she was face to face with the Goblin King of her nightmares, he crouched before her. "Why you, Sarah Williams? You nearly destroyed me once. Do you hate me so much that you felt the need to do it again?"

Sarah looked at him fiercely. "As you said, he asks and I do. This time, he asked."

"And what in particular did he ask you to do?" One winged brow rose fractionally but his tone remained even and icy.

"Information. Reconnaissance. That was all." She smiled slightly and taunted him. "He doesn't view as enough of a threat to warrant a silent death quite yet."

Jareth smirked. "Good." And he was gone. He left the candle flaming.

The next time she was prone on the ground, her mouth dry and cracked for want of water. She'd long since stopped feeling the pain of hunger. Her green eyes glimmered in the meagre light of the dying flame.

"Such a pity." She flinched at his words. "You were once magnificent." She couldn't hear any mockery, only sorrow. He knelt on the ground before her, as she tried to sit up, unwilling to appear quite so weak in front of the goblin king.

Strong hands helped her up, and she feebly shook them off, anger sparking within her once more. She watched him balefully as he lifted a cup to her.

"It's water, just a bit, to ease your parched throat. Will you take it?"

"Yes." She croaked out.

He waited until she'd swallowed half the small cup before asking her a question. "Why did you turn to him Sarah? Why did you call for the High King?"

Green eyes flicked to his sorrowfully. "My options were limited. And he had something I needed."

The Goblin King laughed shortly. "Ah yes, the lure of magic on humans. I'd forgotten about that." He smiled grimly. "So magic laced with the blood of people was worth becoming a slave for."

He looked at her blankly. "How the mighty have fallen. You could have had so much more."

He left her a full cup of water. And innocently beside the renewed candle a peach rested.

Her black clothes were dirty and frayed from the harsh environment of the oubliette. Her knives were gone, her poison was gone, and the lost dreams and ideals of the woman she once was taunted her from a piece of fruit. She cried and hid a small, bitter smile in her arms. She hadn't expected her plans to backfire. She'd underestimated the power of him, the power the lure of forgotten dreams would have on her. She'd underestimated herself.

The next time he came she was ready for him. "If you could kill me I'd be much obliged."

He blinked and then laughed. "Explain." He demanded.

Sarah grinned recklessly. "I refuse to be a slave to him anymore. But some contracts can only be broken by death."

Jareth paused. "I think you're lying. You say that because you've failed to complete your mission. Failure to complete your mission means you cannot go back without disgrace. Disgrace for you means that instead of death, you'd be forced to live in the human realm, and all things magical would be lost to you forever. You'd go insane.

"You'd rather die." He watched her reaction closely.

"True."

"Brave. Foolish, but brave. And no. I will not kill you." He looked at her with such pity that she could not meet his gaze. "Your choices are not as limited as they seem, Sarah Williams, champion of the Labyrinth."

He tipped her chin up with one gloved hand. "But perhaps for you, they seem much harder to face than death."

Sarah blinked fiercely to keep hot tears from spilling from her eyes. "You're not the villain I once thought you were." She said finally.

"I never was." He smiled. "Oh, yes, I can be cruel and ruthless and wicked. But I rule a country, I fight to maintain a modicum of control over the most powerful entity within the Underground, and I wage a war with a tyrannous High King. And all this while remaining at the beck and call of humans wishing children away. I'm no more a villain by nature than you are a ruthless assassin."

She smiled wryly despite herself. "But I _am_ an assassin, a mercenary, a sell sword for the highest bidder."

"But by necessity. Just as I am what I am by necessity."

She looked at him, clearly a little perplexed. "Tell me this, why do you fight the High King's command if it forces you to do what is cruel and 'villainous'?"

"I won't mind being viewed as a tyrant, a dictator if I can manage to unite the Underground. Surely you can understand that?"

And she could. She really could. " 'It is far better to be feared than loved, if one cannot be both.'" She quoted and understood.

Blond hair framed shadowed eyes, as he spoke once more. "Now you tell me this, why did you choose to be _his_ slave…?" _When you could have been mine…_

She tasted the unspoken question lingering on the air between them and thought carefully how to answer. Finally, "For all that I chose it, it is _still_ _slavery_. For all my arguments otherwise, it is quite obviously so. But slavery carefully disguised as freedom would have been even worse."

His eyes darkened. "Would it have been?" He intoned softly as he disappeared once more.

This thought ran round her mind for long hours.

Choices and slavery and death and decisions played tag in her head. Sometime during the game, Sarah the silent assassin and the woman dead to dreams and freedom had faded to nothing. Sarah Williams, dressed in a ratty black costume, the one time Champion of the Labyrinth remained instead.

And then the oubliette made a door. Sarah walked through it and found herself in the Castle Beyond the Goblin City, mere steps from the entrance to the throne room.

Muffled noises of raucous laughter echoed through the stone hallways and from within the throne room, a man's voice started laughing, and a baby gurgled.

Sarah slipped one hand onto the wall and peered around the massive entry. She smiled at the sight of the Goblin King sitting on his throne, a human baby bouncing on his lap, goblins crowding around his feet.

Later he would go out and terrify the person who'd wished that small child away. They probably wouldn't win and he'd turn the child into a goblin. But that was what he did. She got that now.

She sighed and then stopped when she realized that the room was looking at her. She stepped into full view. Goblins murmured curiously as she slowly made her way forward through their teeming bodies.

She stopped several feet in front of the Goblin King, he hands twisted nervously behind her back.

Her eyes scanned the room before she started to talk. "There will be consequences to my actions, far reaching and painful."

He waited silently, eyes carefully neutral, hope burning behind his blank façade.

Her eyes skittered around nervously once more. "I've forgotten how to be the Sarah I was. I've forgotten lots of things.

"But I've just remembered that the greatest freedom we have, is to pick our own chains. And I've only just remembered that the slavery of loving is far more important than anything else." She paused, her breath was caught in her throat and her heart was pumping double time.

She bowed her head. "If it pleases your majesty, I choose to remain here."

Jareth's face broke out into a grin. "Look at me." He stepped close. "I approve of your choice." She smiled shyly, an alien feeling making her heart beat fast and her knees feel weak. She hadn't felt this waysince she was a girl in highschool, ready to take on the world.

He hummed slightly and made a face."And as for the consequences, well." He grinned devilishly,"We'll simply have to face them together. A Villainous King and his Assassin Queen."

**AN:** Sarah quotes Machiavelli's_The Prince, _when talking to Jareth. Um. Yeah. That's a good book. I strongly recommend it. You all shouldgo and read it. Very interesting principles discussed in it.

This story kept me up until 5 in the morning.Because of thisI believe it will be a little rough around the edges. Sort of a choppy narrative, but that was intentional. I gave it a brief once over for spelling and stuff; if there'sanything I missed please let me know, and I'll fix it.

I'm nt sure why I wrote this, and what I was thinking when I did it. When I catch my muse again and get a straight answer outta him, I'll let you all knowUntil then, tell me what you thought! Review!


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